5.  The applicants were born in 1976 and 1971 and live in Åminnefors and Kotka respectively.
6.  The applicants were serving their prison sentence in Riihimäki Prison. The first applicant had been convicted of aggravated drug offence, aggravated theft and firearms misdemeanour, and sentenced to an imprisonment of two years and eight months. He started to serve his sentence in Riihimäki Prison in early 2004. The second applicant had been convicted of attempted manslaughter and sentenced to an imprisonment of four years and three months. He started to serve his sentence in Riihimäki Prison approximately in November 2003.
7.  After an unsupervised meeting with his family, the first applicant was put in isolation from 13 to 16 November 2004 as he was suspected of having concealed unlawful substances inside his body. The second applicant was isolated from 9 to 16 May 2004 on returning to the prison after leave.
8.  While in isolation, the applicants had to give up their normal prison clothing and to wear overalls which covered them from feet to neck and were “sealed” by prison staff with plastic strips. The applicants were not able to remove the overalls by themselves. When they needed to use the toilet, they had to call the guards to escort them there and to remove the overalls. According to the first applicant, the first time the guards did not come quickly enough and he had to relieve himself in the overalls.
9.  On his second day in isolation, the second applicant was given laxatives without any prior medical consultation but with his consent. When they took effect, the second applicant called for a guard to take him to the toilet but it took a long time for the guard to arrive and the applicant had to defecate in the overalls. He claims that afterwards he had to put the same dirty overalls back on and was not provided with the possibility to wash.
10.  The applicants claimed that they were not allowed to wash during the whole time in isolation. The dirty overalls apparently caused skin irritation in the first applicant and broke the skin of the second applicant.
11.  In February 2005 the applicants reported the matter to the police.
12.  On 25 January 2007 the public prosecutor pressed charges against the Riihimäki Prison director and two chief guards for breach of official duty (virkavelvollisuuden rikkominen, brott mot tjänsteplikt) because they had failed to respect the applicants’ human dignity during their isolation. In addition, the applicants pressed charges for coercion (pakottaminen, olaga tvång) and defamation.
13.  On 15 June 2007 the Riihimäki District Court (käräjäoikeus, tingsrätten), after having held an oral hearing in the presence of the applicants and several witnesses, dismissed all charges against the accused. It found that the use of overalls was acceptable because of the need to control and prevent smuggling of drugs and other substances into prison. It was not intended that a prisoner defecate in them, but defecation took place in separate, supervised toilets. The use of overalls as such did not have any effect on how quickly a prisoner could be taken to a toilet. The use of overalls was not meant to humiliate the prisoners and did not restrict their privacy any more than the isolation itself did. The use of overalls was thus not as such a measure which would have degraded the applicants. They had not been expected, let alone coerced, to defecate in the overalls: the first applicant had done so of his own will as a protest against the use of overalls while the second applicant, as a legally isolated prisoner, needed to be taken to a separate toilet which he did not reach on time. There was no evidence that the guards had delayed their response to the calls of the applicants. It had not been shown that the applicants did not have the possibility to wash whenever necessary.
14.  By letter dated 5 July 2007 the applicants appealed to the Kouvola Appeal Court (hovioikeus, hovrätten).
15.  On 30 September 2008 the Kouvola Appeal Court accepted the conclusions of the District Court and upheld its judgment. It found that the purpose of the use of overalls was to prevent the smuggling of drugs into prison. Concealing drugs in the body could also cause significant health risks to the prisoner. The court found that it had not been shown that the use of overalls had any effect on how quickly a prisoner was taken to a toilet. Moreover, it found, by referring to the case-law of the Court, that the suffering and humiliation caused by the use of overalls did not exceed the inevitable suffering and humiliation caused by the legal isolation itself. The rights of prisoners were not restricted more than what was necessary for the purposes of isolation and the use of overalls cannot therefore be regarded as violating human dignity.
16.  By letter dated 1 December 2008 the applicants appealed to the Supreme Court (korkein oikeus, högsta domstolen).
17.  On 4 November 2009 the Supreme Court refused the applicants leave to appeal.